Tuesday, 28 June 2005

There's no real reason for this picture here, other than to illustrate an alternative use for a Vox amp (a seat for a cat!). Actually, I'm just testing this new picture upload facility on Blogger. Never mind... normal service will be resumed shortly!

Yamaha Announce the A2 Air Guitar: "...Yamaha’s newly developed A.I.R. technology (Alternative Internal Resonance) shatters this precondition, specially positioned ‘sound tubes’ pass through a lightweight body at intricately selected angles. This allows string vibrations, which normally only resonate the top of the guitar body are more effectively ‘transmitted’ through the whole instrument..."

Thursday, 23 June 2005

Last week I went to see DKT/MC5 again, this time in Oxford. I also remembered to take my camera this time! As ever, they played an exciting set full of the MC5's best known songs.

What I want to know is, what model Fender Stratocaster is it that Wayne Kramer uses these days? It's a hardtail Strat, that's for certain (despite the "with Synchronized Tremolo" legend on the headstock!), and on the scratchplate near the pickup selector switch there is a Fender "F". Does anyone have any ideas what model it might be? Just curious...

Brian May gets encore at the Palace: guitar legends Brian May and Jimmy Page are among Britain's greatest musicians honoured by the Queen this week, whilst Live Aid founder and Ultravox star Midge Ure gets an OBE along with guitarist John Mayall, the father of British blues.

Friday, 10 June 2005

Here's my old battered cello guitar that was rescued and brought back to life through the efforts of a couple of friends. I really can't take any credit for this project, as all the work was done for me. This work included re-glueing the body, re-setting the neck, sanding the remaining old finish off (someone had made a half-arsed attempt previously) and re-spraying in this gorgeous gold.

I've strung her up tonight for the first time and the initial impressions are good. The sound is sweet and I have achieved a very nice playable action. I just need to play the new strings in a bit and get the tuning stabilised, as they always sound overly bright when you first put them on.